In a few weeks, I will be fully vaccinated with both shots of BioNTech/Pfizer and therefore ready to travel internationally again. I would like to identify destinations that are least locked down so that I could decide where to travel. Is there a ranking of nations based on how open everything is there? Coupled with IATA's COVID travel map I could then narrow it down to countries that also allow foreign citizens to enter for the purposes of tourism.
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5Even when things do open up, the advice to only do essential travel will stay a lot longer. Please be careful, there is no clear 'you have had your jabs, you can not get infected' yet. – Willeke Mar 25 '21 at 19:57
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@Willeke you are right - the vaccine is not 100% effective against hospitalization/death, so I wouldn't travel post-vaccination if I was over the age of 60 or had health conditions. – JonathanReez Mar 25 '21 at 20:05
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3There are a lot of people under 60 or didn't have underlying health conditions who would like to have a word with you about what Covid did to them. – Peter M Mar 25 '21 at 20:45
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1@PeterM People under 60, with no underlying health conditions and with two full doses of Pfizer/Moderna? That would be very surprising. Without the vaccine though? Yes, I personally know such people. – JonathanReez Mar 25 '21 at 21:35
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The vaccine is simply a statistical protection (albeit in the high 90+%), however IMHO it will not change whatever hidden mechanism caused people of all ages to suffer pre-vaccine. In addition there is research out there that the current vaccines don't protect equally against some of the current variants, let alone any future variants. I don't see covid protection as a single event, but as an ongoing process. So the more risk you take, the more opportunities for covid to sneak into that remaining, unprotected 5% – Peter M Mar 25 '21 at 21:48
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@PeterM correct but practically speaking COVID will never go away entirely, especially when traveling to countries with weak vaccination policies. All of us can be expected to get it eventually in our lifetime and its unlikely that we'll get a better vaccine than Pfizer/Moderna. So you either accept that risk and travel now (post-vaccination) or don't accept the risk and never travel again. – JonathanReez Mar 25 '21 at 21:53
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1@PeterM I'd also point out that the risk of disease during travel was always there: malaria, yellow fever, food poisoning, nasty forms of the flu. COVID is just another risk factor we have to accept when boarding a plane. – JonathanReez Mar 25 '21 at 21:55
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@JonathanReez What do you mean by ‘enter freely’? Eg are you referring to countries which allow entry unfettered by pre-travel PCR test, and/or quarantine on arrival, etc? – Traveller Mar 25 '21 at 23:01
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@Traveller clarified the description – JonathanReez Mar 25 '21 at 23:02
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@JonathanReez Sorry, I think I was editing my comment as you were answering it. Are you including or excluding countries that allow entry for tourism but with restrictions such as quarantine/PCR test(s) on arrival? – Traveller Mar 25 '21 at 23:09
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@Traveller yes I'm including all countries which accept tourism, even with 14 day quarantine requirements. My answer below takes that into account. – JonathanReez Mar 25 '21 at 23:11
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2@PeterM The vaccines do not fully protect against infection, but they very well protect against severe cases. How much they protect against long COVID (arguably the scariest prospect for people under 60 without underlying health conditions), I don't know. – gerrit Mar 26 '21 at 09:08
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Related: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/157147/what-if-any-countries-are-either-open-to-or-have-set-definitive-plans-to-allow – Jacob Horbulyk Mar 29 '21 at 19:57
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One easy way to figure out the true state of lockdowns is to look at mobility ratings. People stop traveling around when restrictions are high and go back to normal lives when restrictions are low. Using data from Google Mobility we can calculate the mobility rating for every country in the world which has enough Google Maps users. We'll use the "Retail & recreation" category which is probably the most relevant for tourism. It is summarized by Google as:
Mobility trends for places like restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movie theaters.
As of April 17th 2021, here is the 14-day average for the countries tracked by Google. Roughly speaking, anything with a score below -30 is fairly locked down. The last column is based on data from this website, which seems fairly accurate.
| Country name | Mobility index | US Citizens allowed? |
|---|---|---|
| Zambia | 18 | Yes |
| Fiji | 13 | No |
| Pakistan | 12 | No |
| Zimbabwe | 11 | No |
| Ghana | 9 | Yes |
| Botswana | 9 | No |
| Cote d'Ivoire | 9 | No |
| Mali | 9 | No |
| Papua New Guinea | 7 | No |
| Nepal | 6 | No |
| Togo | 6 | No |
| Angola | 5 | No |
| New Zealand | 3 | No |
| Nigeria | 1 | No |
| Saudi Arabia | 0 | No |
| South Korea | 0 | Yes |
| Thailand | -2 | Yes |
| Cameroon | -2 | No |
| Tanzania | -5 | No |
| Kenya | -5 | Yes |
| Laos | -6 | No |
| Nicaragua | -6 | Yes |
| Sri Lanka | -6 | No |
| Tajikistan | -7 | No |
| Bangladesh | -7 | Yes |
| United Arab Emirates | -7 | Yes |
| Senegal | -7 | Yes |
| Benin | -7 | No |
| Vietnam | -8 | No |
| United States | -8 | Yes |
| Namibia | -8 | Yes |
| Australia | -9 | No |
| Rwanda | -9 | Yes |
| Taiwan | -9 | No |
| Egypt | -9 | Yes |
| Belize | -9 | Yes |
| Russia | -10 | No |
| Qatar | -10 | No |
| South Africa | -11 | Yes |
| Singapore | -11 | No |
| Haiti | -12 | Yes |
| Indonesia | -12 | No |
| Japan | -12 | No |
| Trinidad and Tobago | -13 | No |
| Aruba | -13 | Yes |
| El Salvador | -13 | Yes |
| Mongolia | -14 | No |
| Hong Kong | -14 | No |
| Bahrain | -14 | Yes |
| Mozambique | -15 | Yes |
| Gabon | -16 | Yes |
| Morocco | -16 | No |
| Georgia | -18 | Yes |
| Uganda | -18 | No |
| Israel | -18 | No |
| Malaysia | -19 | No |
| Kyrgyzstan | -20 | No |
| Belarus | -20 | No |
| Ecuador | -20 | Yes |
| Puerto Rico | -20 | No |
| Antigua and Barbuda | -21 | Yes |
| Sweden | -21 | No |
| Kazakhstan | -21 | No |
| Lebanon | -22 | Yes |
| Serbia | -22 | Yes |
| Bolivia | -23 | Yes |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | -23 | Yes |
| Guatemala | -23 | Yes |
| Moldova | -23 | No |
| Denmark | -24 | No |
| Mexico | -24 | Yes |
| Romania | -25 | No |
| Jordan | -25 | Yes |
| Ukraine | -25 | Yes |
| Oman | -26 | No |
| Latvia | -26 | No |
| Croatia | -27 | No |
| The Bahamas | -27 | Yes |
| Canada | -27 | No |
| India | -27 | No |
| North Macedonia | -29 | Yes |
| Dominican Republic | -31 | Yes |
| Spain | -31 | No |
| Costa Rica | -31 | Yes |
| Finland | -31 | No |
| Cape Verde | -32 | No |
| Bulgaria | -32 | No |
| Honduras | -33 | Yes |
| Paraguay | -34 | Yes |
| Venezuela | -34 | No |
| Argentina | -35 | No |
| Kuwait | -35 | No |
| Panama | -35 | Yes |
| Hungary | -36 | No |
| Turkey | -36 | Yes |
| Switzerland | -37 | No |
| Estonia | -37 | No |
| Colombia | -37 | Yes |
| Liechtenstein | -38 | No |
| Luxembourg | -39 | No |
| Malta | -39 | No |
| Portugal | -39 | No |
| Norway | -40 | No |
| Netherlands | -40 | No |
| Brazil | -40 | Yes |
| Belgium | -41 | No |
| Uruguay | -42 | No |
| Lithuania | -42 | No |
| Poland | -43 | No |
| Ireland | -43 | Yes |
| Cambodia | -44 | No |
| Greece | -44 | No |
| United Kingdom | -45 | Yes |
| Germany | -45 | No |
| Italy | -45 | No |
| France | -45 | No |
| Jamaica | -46 | Yes |
| Peru | -46 | Yes |
| Barbados | -47 | Yes |
| Slovakia | -50 | No |
| Czechia | -50 | No |
| Philippines | -51 | No |
| Austria | -52 | No |
| Slovenia | -53 | No |
| Mauritius | -60 | No |
| Chile | -60 | No |
| Myanmar (Burma) | -74 | No |
I will update this list once a month until it stops being relevant or until Google stops publishing its mobility data.
Xnero
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JonathanReez
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1But if a country won't even let you in, surely a high score here isn't interesting? Or requires a two week quarantine before you can join the mobility? Eg Fiji will not let you in if you've been in the USA, Europe, or the UK. Singapore requires special permits to let you in and then demands a quarantine for those who get one. – Kate Gregory Mar 25 '21 at 21:15
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1@KateGregory correct, so you'd need to also look up who is willing to let you in. I'll see if I can parse the US consulate data later on to also add a "tourists allowed" column. – JonathanReez Mar 25 '21 at 21:34
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@KateGregory updated with another column listing whether or not travel is actually allowed :) Looks like 61 countries are currently open to US citizens. – JonathanReez Mar 25 '21 at 22:07
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I'm not sure if your last column is entirely correct / consistent. For example, in Thailand US citizens will still have to quarantine. In the UK too, going by the IATA Travel Centre. – JJJ Mar 26 '21 at 05:05
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This data seems irrelevant to the question. Mexico is -24, and yet its tourism industry is completely open for business, with no negative test requirement for inbound tourists. – John Churchill Mar 26 '21 at 06:39
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@JJJ they need to quarantine but they can come for tourism. You can’t do that in Australia for example. – JonathanReez Mar 26 '21 at 08:12
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@JohnChurchill If I understand correctly it’s because of lockdowns in non touristy parts and reduced numbers of tourists. Not the best proxy for openness but not sure what’s better. – JonathanReez Mar 26 '21 at 08:12
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I asked a very similar question one year ago but it got closed: Where can I find an up-to-date list of COVID-19-related curfews and business closures in different countries?
Anyway here was my attempt of answer:
- Wikipedia has a page on COVID-19 related curfews and lockdowns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_related_curfews_and_lockdowns (thanks Willeke for pointing to that resource).
- Dataset on coronavirus government countermeasures (per country/region/city?)
- The websites of the local US embassies often mention nationwide or local curfews, and seem to be quite frequently updated, e.g. https://mx.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/covid-19-information/, https://do.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/ https://ht.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information, https://ec.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information-ecu-2/
Franck Dernoncourt
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